There's a favorite story the LaPortas like to tell about Matt whenever anyone asks about his dream to become a baseball player. They share it occasionally, but mostly they've been saving this one for the right moment, like when he's a step or two away from the big leagues and tantalizingly close to achieving everything he's ever wanted.

Joshua Gunter/The Plain DealerMatt LaPorta's power to all fields has been on display throughout his baseball career. This season, he's hit 21 homers between Huntsville and Akron.

They've been recounting it often lately. LaPorta was a freshman at Charlotte High School in Punta Gorda, Fla., when a teacher told him to write an essay describing the career path he wanted to follow.

Naturally, he wrote about becoming a major-league baseball player.

The next day, the assignment was returned with instructions to rewrite it. It was "unrealistic."

"Matt was so upset about it," said Vince LaPorta, Matt's father. "I was mad, too. You can't take a kid's dream away from him. Even if he wanted to be a rocket scientist, you have to encourage it."

According to legend, Matt LaPorta refused to rewrite the paper. Instead, he used the teacher as inspiration.

"OK, you watch," LaPorta remembered thinking. "It was one of those little motivators."

Joshua Gunter/The Plain DealerWhile keeping an eye on the field, Matt LaPorta accommodates a fan's request for an autograph before a recent Aeros game in Akron.

That was the last time anything has been described as "little" in LaPorta's life. In truth, that tale became one of the major motivational tools for LaPorta, one that helped inspire him to a dream career that last week led him to a whirlwind of developments when he was the key reimbursement in the Indians' trade for left-hander CC Sabathia.

Everything with LaPorta, it seems, comes on a grand scale. He doesn't just hit, he belts home runs. He isn't just the top player in Florida, he's the SEC Player of the Year. He's doesn't hit just a home run in his first minor-league game this year, he smacks a grand slam.

He's not just traded, he's swapped for a Cy Young Award winner.

Still, even being accustomed to an oversize life, the past week has brought a dizzying amount of attention.

Suddenly Peter Gammons was analyzing LaPorta's swing on ESPN, and stories about him appeared on the front page of his hometown Port Charlotte, Fla., newspaper five times last week. About 30 reporters and cameramen crushed around him in a narrow hallway at Akron's Canal Park on the day he reported to the Class AA team. He couldn't take a sip of water at Sunday's Futures Game in New York without being swarmed by more media.

If he's named to the U.S. Olympic baseball team Wednesday -- a real possibility -- the hounding attention is likely to continue.

"I've never been in this situation before," LaPorta said. "The only thing close to this was out in Omaha [at the College World Series]. But this seems like a little bigger scale. You just take it with a grain of salt and you enjoy the moment."

Karen Schiely/Akron Beacon-Journal via APNL scout on LaPorta at bat: "He's not real crazy at the plate. He's controlled and patient, but when he does get a pitch to hit, he comes unglued. That's what you want to see from a power guy."

Somehow it suits his personality, which fills up a dugout with a hearty laugh and wide grin. At 6-feet-2 and 210 pounds, he has bulky muscles built for launching the ball out of the stadium. He belted 20 home runs in the first half of the season with Milwaukee's Class AA Huntsville -- which happened to come in his first full season moving from the aluminum bats of college to the wooden bats of professional baseball.

"That's not unheard of, but that's very rare," said Ross Atkins, the Indians' director of scouting.

There are questions about where he'll play in the field -- if he's athletic enough to be a corner outfielder or will he be moved to first base. But the power factor is what makes scouts take notice -- and helps them see past other parts of his game.

"He's not real crazy at the plate," said one National League scout, who didn't want his name used. "He's controlled and patient, but when he does get a pitch to hit, he comes unglued. That's what you want to see from a power guy."

The 23-year-old LaPorta developed that power and consistency over years of hard work, his father said. Young Matt LaPorta would hit endless rounds of T-ball into a net in his backyard, and he'd beat teachers to his high school for early batting practice, arriving at 6:30 a.m.

"The teachers still talk about that," Vince LaPorta chuckled.

As a kid he'd belt tiny rocks in the air, sometimes smashing street lights. As he got older, he graduated to hitting bottle caps with broomsticks, certain that working with the smaller tools was improving his hand-eye coordination.

He earned enough accolades to be drafted in the 14th round of the 2003 draft by his favorite team, the Chicago Cubs. He turned that down, though, for Florida, and when he was selected by Boston in the 14th round of the 2006 draft after his junior season, he opted to decline that, too.

LaPorta's dreams had always been bigger, and he knew that a junior year marred by an oblique injury wasn't an accurate indication of his talent. He came back for his senior season and not only was named the SEC Player of the Year for the second time (the first in 2005), but he was the seventh overall selection in the MLB draft by Milwaukee.

Joshua Gunter/The Plain DealerLaPorta has flashed some leather in his short time in left field with the Aeros, but the Indians organization remains uncertain what his best defensive position will be.

LaPorta embraces even something as private as religion on the public stage. LaPorta often credits God with his success, and is quick to proclaim how important Christianity is in his life. He talks about how his fiancee, Dara, whom he'll marry in December, has kept him focused on his faith. Before each at-bat, he draws a cross in the dirt outside the batter's box. After each home run, he points up toward the heavens.

"The Lord just gave me courage," LaPorta said. "He's put me in this arena hopefully to be able to use me to reach more people, and bring more people to his kingdom."

Which is not to say that LaPorta is supremely good at all times. When a reporter mentioned last week that LaPorta's Florida Gators ties might not be appreciated in Ohio, his devilish side appeared.

"After we beat Ohio State all those times?" he laughed. "Is that what you mean?"

No question, LaPorta has some big wins on his Gators' side.

He also has mounds of potential and garishly large amounts of expectations. He likes it that way, though. Don't try to crush his dream -- he'd rather have a lot of expectations to live up to.

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